Page 4 of Kings of Desire
‘I assume you’re here on scholarship,’ I smiled peaking at the thick pile of notebooks that were one step away from tearing her bag apart.
‘That obvious?’
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,’ I apologized, realizing I gave myself away from having looked in her bag.
‘Relax, it’s not like it was some big secret. I think I’m the only student around here who has something besides makeup and drugs in there anyway.’
‘You and me both,’ I shrugged, opening my bag for her to see my personal stack of new notebooks. ‘But I’m not going to use them unless I can figure out my schedule,’ I added exhausted that I had no idea where to go look.
‘You’re lucky that the right girl found you,’ Jenna winked, turning towards the glass exit door ‘Come on, it’s on a panel outside,’ she spoke walking through the door and out into the back garden.
I rushed to follow, and as soon as I caught up to walk beside her, the lecture about EMA went on. That’s short for Echo Millennium Academy if you didn’t catch on.
She strode through a long paved alley to the empty side of the yard where metal panels were hiding in the back, almost covered by an overgrown green fence.
I thought it weird that no one was there, but Freckles quickly elucidated the mystery, ‘I guess we’re the only losers around,’ she observed, continuing walking towards the boards. ‘I don’t assume you have a smartphone or a viable internet connection?’
‘Actually, I do have a smartphone,’ I chuckled, pulling an extinct type of brick out of my pocket. I had a smartphone, but the trick about it was that it wasn’t smart at all. It was an outdated version that used to belong to my mother. I could barely place a call, let alone have access to any kind of advanced technology. The only reason I brought it along was to keep in touch with Nat...if she could ever call me.
‘No offense, but that looks like it came out of a junkyard. Does that even have internet?’
‘I would be surprised if it even has signal,’ I made fun of mymodestsituation, because...why not?
‘Well, assuming it had, we wouldn’t need to come here for our schedule. It’s published online. Same as a part of the research material we need for some of the classes,’ her shoulders dropped as if defeated by the system. It was the elite’s world at the end of the day, and that’s exactly what they called themselves The Elite.
‘Fortunately, we do have a little backup,’ she turned her gaze to look over her shoulder at two guys that looked like they just came from the comics convention. ‘I think I lied when I said that I was the only student to carry notebooks. These two nerds got in with even better grades than I did.’
One of the young men waved at us as he seemed to already be aware of our presence here. ‘Darrel and Thomas,’ Jenna pointed towards them as Darell being the fawn-haired one and Thomas, the curly dark-haired fellow, with glasses hanging on a string around his neck.
‘New blood,’ Darrel placed a hand on his hip, examining me from head to toe.
‘Chill out, you’re not a fucking vampire,’ Jenna spoke in disgust, mostly because his gaze has stopped at my neckline.
Well, not exactly at my neckline, maybe a few inches below, at the round shapes that I was doing a lousy job hiding. I never liked people staring, and the fact that I was successful heading towards a D-cup was giving me difficulties preventing that from happening.
In any case, he was harmless, nothing that I couldn’t handle, and nothing compared to the libidinous looks of my father’s friends.
‘These two relics are my only friends around this place,’ Jenna rolled her eyes as if she couldn’t help but stand them. At least she had something I didn’t. Friends. Not anymore anyway. It seemed my quick downfall took me out of their graces since the fact that they could afford a warm meal while I couldn’t, was the string that broke oursolidfriendship. Though I had clung to them as much as I could. Pathetic, I knew, and I despised myself for that, but the notes they had of the courses and the extra manuals they could afford to buy, made me try and keep the connections. I guess they were as happy as me that I left, but my problem was that, here, I was supposed to do it all over again. For one final year.
A bitter smile emerged on my face ‘Be happy you have them,’ I spoke, turning my head to look at what courses I had on for today.
Checking out the schedule I couldn’t figure out which was where since there was something still confusing me. The Academy was a lot smaller than my old college, even if the land where it was situated seemed to go on for miles. Only three buildings, a few tennis courts, a hippodrome, and a covered Olympic swimming pool.
‘Where are the dorms.’ I asked, looking back at Jenna.
‘Dorms!?’ Thomas cackled. ‘You think any of these spoiled asses will live in a dorm!?’
How was I to know? Back at my old college they had several dorm buildings and thespoiled asses,were often dumped there by their parents since a babysitter was no longer efficient at that age.
‘Look around you,’ Darrel continued Thomas’s idea ‘There’s a reason why this place is up in the hills.’
I did notice that the Academy was on higher ground but hadn’t observed every detail since it took me forever to get here, and I slept on the bus for most of the trip.
‘The Elite don’t need dorms because they all live here, in the Hills, while the Annelids live in the Pit.’
‘Annelids!? Is that what they call us?’ My amusement mixed with contempt.
‘Yes,’ a sad Jenna answered, taking in a deep breath -like that could ever ease the burden.
